• Last updated 10/19/12 by Melanie Mayo

As the Mama of a just-turned-two-year old, I’ve been breastfeeding for 24 months. This feels both commonplace and absolutely extraordinary. I’m fortunate that my breastfeeding journey has been relatively easy. Other than my blistered nipples and her blistered lips that first week, and a few bouts of clogged milk ducts along the way, it’s been a pretty smooth journey. With my supportive husband by my side, I’d call the first two years of my breastfeeding journey successful and fulfilling. The fact is, I’ve loved breastfeeding. Loved it. Knowing... read more

• Last updated 10/5/12 by Mothering Editorial

by Kelly Griffith Issue 97, November/December 1999 Breastmilk is by far the best nutrition for human babies. The reams of scientific data supporting that fact would impress even the most unenlightened skeptic. If a pharmaceutical company had made the stuff, everyone in America would know that it helps babies fight infection,1 hastens a mother’s postpartum recovery,2 and provides countless other benefits to both mom and baby.3 But when does all that good stuff end? Scientific research and the slowly changing attitudes of an often-traditional medical... read more

• Last updated 10/19/12 by Melanie Mayo

Seven babies have died after being fed a formula or breastmilk additive called SimplyThick–designed to help premature babies swallow and keep down liquids. Although the FDA has warned against the use of the product for premature infants, SimplyThick is widely available. Continued use of the thickener led to twenty-one infants developing inflamed intestines, seven of whom died. The [FDA] first warned in May 2011 against feeding SimplyThick to premature babies because it may cause a tissue inflammation known as necrotizing enterocolitis. The FDA is... read more

• Last updated 1/16/13 by Cynthia Mosher

Thank you to Marija Mikolajczak for this guest post. It seems like more and more people are hearing about elimination communication.  Maybe this is part of an overall trend of eco-friendly living, or due to an increase in interest in attachment parenting.  Who wouldn’t want to wash (or buy) fewer diapers? And having a closer relationship with your baby sounds great! Sometimes parents get stuck on how to get started with EC, since they may not personally know anyone else who has ever done this, in contrast to those countries where “holding baby out to... read more

• Last updated 10/18/12 by Melanie Mayo

I write a lot about the central role of healthy attachment for child wellbeing. But what IS attachment and how do you get it?? It can be easy for someone like me who is steeped daily in the topic to take it for granted that people know what we mean when we say “attachment.” And as Gordon Neufeld points out*, attachment is not an intuitive word — in other words a word whose meaning is naturally and easily understood. Author of an excellent book on attachment, Hold On to Your Kids, Neufeld points out that the word attachment was invented as a way to have a... read more

• Last updated 12/1/09 by Jennifer Margulis

Note the baby's puffy eyes, spit up stain on shirt, floppy head, funny ears, and scowlAt the library this afternoon, the children’s librarian cooed at newborn Leone, who was fast asleep in the frontpack on my chest. “She’s beautiful,” the librarian said. Actually, I think Leone is funny looking. She has my husband’s ears (they stick out), a broad nose, and a rather pronounced crease in her upper lip. “She looks so much like a he but I know it’s a she,” her 6-year-old brother–who was hoping she’d be a boy–lamented to me a few days after she was born. Beautiful or... read more

• Last updated 10/5/12 by Mothering Editorial

By Aimee Campbell Aug 17, 2012 If you're a mom that breastfeeds you know how important the timing to said breastfeeding is. Before a trip to the store? Check. Before bed? Check. Before dinner? Check. Before breathing/eating/bathing? Check. Check. Check. So when I traveled out to the beach with my nine-month-old nursing machine in tow I anticipated a day full of sand and surf and snuggled up boobie time. This trip turned out to be more of an “extended family” sort of deal, and so included: Me, the baby, the sixteen year old cousin, the seventeen year old brother, the... read more

• Last updated 3/8/12 by Hoyamum

When my eldest was a newborn, it was pretty much a sure thing that from 4pm until 10pm I’d be sitting in my chair nursing her.  She’d have one side, then seem to finish.  I’d lift her up, pat her back, hold her against my chest… maybe daddy might come to have a little cuddle with her since he’d been at work all day.  But soon enough she was fussing again and the only thing that satisfied her was to have the other side.  Back and forth we’d go from one side then the other.  I felt tired from a long day of baby care and a broken night’s sleep; my breasts felt soft like all... read more

• Last updated 10/19/12 by Melanie Mayo

By Tina Kimmel Issue 114 September/October 2002 The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the Juvenile Product Manufacturers Association (JPMA, the crib manufacturers' lobby) recently launched a campaign to discourage parents from placing infants in adult beds or sleeping with them, based on data showing that infants have a very small risk of dying in adult beds.1,2 The CPSC implies that infants in adult beds are at greater risk than infants in cribs, but as we know, and as they know, babies also die in cribs. What we need to do is calculate the... read more

• Last updated 8/10/11 by Mothering Editorial

By Jake Aryeh Marcus Issue 48, May/June 2008 According to the US Department of Labor, 56 percent of women with children under age three are employed outside the home in the civilian workforce.1 In order for these children to be fed breastmilk, most of their mothers will need the cooperation of their employers. And for that cooperation to happen, significant amounts of educating and planning are necessary. But many women who plan to breastfeed are unsure of how they will continue to do so when they return to work. Some mothers wean their children before returning to... read more